Ecotourism development

Ecotourism is a concept and a fast growing segment of the tourism industry worldwide. It plays an increasingly important role in the socio‐economic development of many districts and provinces in Vietnam. Therefore, it needs to be well planned and managed with the aid of spatial information technologies such as Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS).

Bird watching ecotourism is highly-responsible and educative kind of nature tourism which helps conserve natural environment and culture values of the local area, develop community and bring about remarkable economic benefits. Birds are seen everywhere but especially found with many species in nature reserves and national parks. There are 30 National Parks, 67 Nature Reserves, more than 50 Bird Sanctuaries in Vietnam, and more 16 Marine Protected Area are planned to be established until 2015, which has great potentials to develop bird watching ecotourism.

Hoang Lien National Park, what is located in Sa Pa District, Lao Cai Province, has been planned to develop priority in ecological tourism because the park is composed by many ecological systems with the most diversiform biology in Vietnam. Here exists many endemic species, beautiful landscapes, as well as typical cultures of local inhabitants. According to statistical data, the number of tourism arrivals to the area grew up rapidly. Since 2000 to 2006, the figure was increased by 39.1%. There was a continual increase in its tourism revenue as well as diversity in its effective tours.

ASEAN’s Rich Biodiversity
Despite occupying only three percent of the earth’s surface,
the ASEAN region hosts 20 percent of all known species
that live deep in the region’s mountains, jungles, rivers,
lakes and seas. .

Ecotourism is said to be a high prospective trend in tourism development. Theoretically, it addresses the triple bottom line of the World’s pressing issues. Nevertheless, the reality does not usually come up to expectations. Very few case studies were proved to be successfully adopted. One of the reasons is the weakness in terms of community approach, particularly in developing countries.

The dehesa is an ancient agrosilvopastoral system created by farmers to raise livestock,
mainly on private lands. This system is highly appreciated by society and enjoys legal
protection of the authorities because it is rich in biodiversity, a home to critically
endangered species (Iberian lynx, imperial eagle and black vulture); a significant carbon
sink; ethnologically and anthropologically valuable (culture and traditions); and is known
for its scenic value.